Dutch Rule In

Nei

Guidance for Pacific Administrations

First of a Series of Three Articles written for “PIM” by Wolfe Preger, IT is a commonplace, almost, to point to the Netherlands East Indies as an example of wise, colonial adminis tration. And, in these days, when the Four Freedoms of the Atlantic Charter are acclaimed as a momentous innovation, it might be of some interest to glance briefly at a system of government in which the Four Freedoms have flourished for a century and longer—that of the Netherlands East Indies.

It might also be enlightening to take a quick look at the men who applied it— the Dutch. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that no nation in the world has a history in which these freedoms have been fostered and maintained for so long and so consistently as that of the Netherlands.

Spanish and Portugese Jews found freedom from religious persecution in Holland, where oppressed French Pro testants also found asylum. At a time when English non-conformists were being pilloried, branded and tortured. Scottish Presbyterian, Italian Catholic and Dutch Calvinist and Jew sat side by side in free dom and security listening to the lectures of eminent European scholars in the Colleges of the University of Leiden, itself a monument erected by William of Orange, the Father of the nation, as a tribute to the burghers’ victorious fight for freedom against the Spanish invader.

That same University was later to train the men who were to become the administrators of the Netherlands East Indies.

Freedom of conscience and free speech have been two of the four cardinal free doms enjoyed, fostered and maintained by the people of Holland, for centuries.

These same freedoms the Dutch intro duced to the many millions in the Nether lands East Indies.

Whether or not these freedoms were maintained in their country rested en tirely with the Dutch people themselves.

That they were maintained, thanks are due to them alone. The other two free doms, freedom from want and freedom from fear, were dependent on factors not always within the control of the people.

There was little cause for fear in Holland between the fall of Napoleon and the rise of Hitler. When disturbance did take place, the challenge was accepted.

The first to accept the challenge in the Pacific was the Queen of Holland, who declared war on Japan eight hours before

the USA and 12 hours before Great Britain.

The men who applied the system of administration in the Netherlands East Indies were men, therefore, who assumed their responsibilities dominated by an age-old tradition, a love of freedom which Involves respect for the other man’s liberty. These men also brought to their jobs a scientific outlook and a spirit of enterprise which produced in the Indies that peace and prosperity which stamped the administration as being one of the most, if not the most, enlightened and progressive in the world.

Administration

AT the head of the administration stands the Governor-General, who represents the Crown, and who is charged with executive powers, powers of legislation and jurisdiction.

To get a clear idea of what this means, in more familiar terms, one must imagine Canberra sending a man to London whose minimum qualifications are that he is an Australian over 30 years of age. He, with a secretariat, a Council and staff of Civil Servants, and subject to the opposition of a People’s Council, has to administer, from London, the following areas—Great Britain and the Irish Free State, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Luxem bourg, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, the Aegean Isles, Cyprus, Malta, Spain, Por tugal, and a big slice of the African Gold Coast.

The pqpulation of these areas is more than double that of the Netherlands East

Indies; but, territorially, these countries represent the actual land areas governed by the NEI administration.

Yet even this picture is inadequate, for it contains no more than about 10 dif ferent linquistic groups, almost all with a codified common law based on Roman law, and all of the same fundamental religious conviction, and with similar social institutions and traditions.

In the Netherlands East Indies there are something like 137 different tribes and ethnic groups, varying in type and language, with different uncodified customary law, and at vastly different levels of social development. In addition, there is a perplexing multiplicity of cul tural traits, traditions, ideals and aspirations and every form of worship in the world from primitive animism, to Hinduism, Buddhism. Islamism and Christianity, with its multitudinous sectarian diversity.

Considering the nature of the task, it

says a great deal for the character of the administration that religious conflicts are unknown in the Netherlands East Indies.

Low Death Rate

Even more creditable is the success attained in some of the other spheres of administration concerned with hygiene, land policy, agriculture, finance, education, labour, commerce, in dustry and law.

The hygienic and medical means em ployed in Holland to bring the death rate down to the lowest in Europe, if not in the world —8.7 per thousand compared to 12.3 in the United Kingdom, 10.7 in the USA and 9.6 in Australia—were also applied in NET There, too, the death rate is the lowest among all the Indonesian peoples of the Far East, being 20 per thousand. This compares favourably with 32 per thousand in the Straits Settlements, 30 per thou sand in British India and 23 per thousand in the Philippines.

How Population Grew

PROOF of hygienic care, education, and adequate feeding of the population, is seen in the vital statistics.

At the end of the Napoleonic wars the population of Java and Madura was less than 4J million. At the time of the Japanese inyasion it had increased to some 48 million. The official figures are as follows:

England, in 1815, had a population about double that of Java and Madura; but in 1930 had barely reached the 40 million mark. Naturally, Indonesians are a more prolific race than Europeans. But that

very quality increases the dangers of epidemics in a tropical country, among people hardly as educated as the English in matters of hygiene.

Vaccination was introduced years ago and, in 1940, 2,114,498 people were vac cinated against smallpox and 6,609,691 were re-vaccinated.

The most dreadful of all Asiatic dis eases, the plague, which used to take terrible toll of the population, was rendered relatively harmless, until Jap anese neglect caused a resurgence of it this year (.1943). Deaths from plague were as high as 23,239 in 1934. This figure was reduced gradually thus: 1938, 2,083; 1939, 1,541; 1940, 396.

Medical Care

SUCH success was achieved only by constant vigilance. A large staff of doctors was maintained by the Government, who also employed a con siderable corps of nurses, vaccinators, analysts, field workers, lecturers, in spectors and other types of assistants, European, Indonesian and Chinese. Most important of all are the measures taken to Inculcate hygienic habits into the population.

The directing genius of this phase of the administration’s work was Dr. John Lee Hydrick, an American, who joined the Government’s Health Service, and built up an organisation which reached into the remotest parts of Java. Together witn the Government Health Service, he evolved a method of education in hygiene adapted to the peculiar character of Indonesian mentality.

This work, begun in close co-operation with the Public Health Service, has since been taken over completely by it. Ex perimental centres, laboratories and col lating bureaus were established. Field units, working with motion pictures, coloured reproductions and models, and a staff of lecturers, toured town, village and hamlet, talking, explaining, illustrating and demonstrating. In this way, en lightenment was brought to parents, cmldren and village eiders. Periodical inspections were held of homes, schools, food markets and restaurants and per sonal, domestic and public cleanliness inculcated into the people. Findings were recorded and collated and the indications acted upon.

The results of all these activities are revealed in the vital statistics.

War Against Plagues

rpHANKS to the discovery of van A Loghem, a Dutch doctor, one of the principal contributory reasons for the incidence of plague was discovered — the hollow, bamboo poles of which native houses are built, and in which the disease carriers, rats and their colonies of lice, made their nests.

Drastic measures were taken. Houses harbouring rats were destroyed. The Government built over one million new, hygienic houses in the plague centres and, since 1911, 1,619,035 houses have been re built and improved. It also contributed 75 per cent, of the capital needed by different municipalities for the erection of improved homes. The municipalities contributed the remaining 25 per cent.

To these preventive measures another Dutch scientist. Dr. Otten, contributed a therapeutic measure in discovering and employing living plague vaccines.

That other dread disease, Beri-Beri, at one time also ravaged the population.

Other Dutchmen, Eykman and Jansen, discovered the cause—a shortage of vitamin in the food of the people, primarily due to the consumption of polished rice. Here, too, educative steps taken by the Government’s Health Ser vice counteracted the evil.

Java And Madura

Population 1815 (rough estimate) 4,499 250 1880 19,540^813 1890 23,609,312 1&, ° 0 28,386,121 1905 29,924,558 , 1920 34,433,476 1930 40,890,244 1942 (estimated) 48,000,000

And, incidentally, this discovery was of incalculable benefit to the millions of sufferers in India, Burma, Siam, Indo china, China, Africa and elsewhere. In fact, the investigations and discoveries of Eykman and Jansen laid the foundations for the modern vitamin theory. (To be Continued in December)